Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Cornflower - centaurea cyanus

This flower is one of the most beautiful ones of the summer times. It grows from June until September, and mainly next to fields of crops (therefore the name), as well as dry places.

The plant grows from 20 to 100cm, the flowers are blue to lightblue, with slim petals. The petals have hairs on the bottom side. It's a flower under nature protection and almost died out, so....not allowed to be picked up!!!

While it is good for the bees to make honey, the health effect that are associated with it have never really been proven. But it is supposed to be good for the eyes and stomach as well as injuries and usually is used to decorate teas.

Next to harvested field of crops

The flower indicates how much the fields have been fertilized, the more of the cornflowers, the less fertilizer had been used the previous year.

It's the national flower of Estonia, and also one
of the national ones of Germany. This is because of Queen Louise back
from the times of Prussia. She was supposed to have hidden her children
in a field of cornflowers while hiding from Napoleons forces. It also
has the same colour of the prussian military uniforms.

cornflower with a bumblebee

Sometimes, the flower is seen as the "blue flower" of the german romanticists in the 18th century. This blue flower symbolizes for love and desire, as well as for striving for the infinite and the unreachable. When finding this flower, one was supposed to find "enlightenment".

And to give even more Trivia:

"In his fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, American author George R. R. Martin uses the blue flower as a reoccurring symbol to represent young women of the noble House Stark, often with hints to an illicit love affair. In one instance, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen uses blue winter roses to crown the Lady Lyanna Stark as the "Queen of Love and Beauty" at the Tournament of Harrenhal, passing over his own wife, Princess Elia of Dorne." - Source: Wikipedia

My favorite color and sooo beautiful!

Appearantly the flowers on the photos are a Cichorium intybus (common chicory). Gonna replace them when I got photos of the correct one and make another post for the chicory.